December 19, 2017
Kalyan Banerjee speaks on The Repealing and Amending Bill, 2017
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Hon Chairman Sir,
Today, two bills (The Repealing and Amending Bill, 2017 and The Repealing and Amending (Second) Bill, 2017) have been brought for the repealing of the statutes which have been given in the Schedule itself. Our hon law minister is also a very erudite lawyer.
Sir, it is insignificant whether you repeal or not, because ‘doctrine of destitute’ applies. On many occasions the Supreme Court has said that a number of Acts have been declared as false within the category of ‘doctrine of destitute’. If a government doesn’t take any action under the Act itself, for decades together, then it is said that this law falls under the ‘doctrine of destitute’.
All these Acts which have been referred to, have no substance, no relevance today to exist; I totally agree with that. It is correct that since 2014 a good number of statutes have been repealed by your government and you are also the Law Minister, but today’s problem is somewhere else, Sir. Simply repealing the Acts itself will not help in speedy justice.
You talk about ‘Digital India’ but till today you have not been able to provide WiFi in most courts, not in any single High Court, leave aside any district courts. If a lawyer wishes to access any online journal or app in court, they cannot do so in the absence of WiFi. You were a practising lawyer before becoming the Law Minister and you know this very well. Say, While arguing a case, a point comes to your mind and you know a judgement is there. Today online facilities are available to access the judgment. But in the absence of WiFi it is becoming difficult. And private mobile networks do not function inside the court.
Repealing old laws is good but my request to you is to please think about the bad aspects of the matter. There are so many vacancies in courts. It is like pouring water into a cup full of holes – the water just flows out.
Incidentally, you have raised the issue of the Emergency. We all know about the impact of Emergency. I will not go into that aspect. My question is, whether an atmosphere of undeclared emergency exists in India? Opposition parties are under threat, whole India is under under pressure. In 1975, Emergency was declared under the provisions of the Constitution but now it is an undeclared Emergency.
If there was corruption, why have you not initiated trials? Why was a politician arrested without any trials? In the case of a person, who is associated with the ruling party, the CBI had not made any appeal against the acquittal. Even the Supreme Court questioned this move.
Sir, so far The Repealing and Amending Bill 2017 is concerned, I have nothing more to say. I request the hon law minister to concentrate on the problems that I have addressed.
Thank you, Sir.
